Finishing & Screen Printing

BOBST NOVACUT 106-E investment marks dawn of an era for Malaysian off set printer Tung Lim Press

Thursday 21. December 2023 - Successful businesses are often built on consistency. This can involve consistency across processes, supply chains, and the quality of materials used. However, it can also involve building solid relationships with reliable partners.

This is a fitting description of BOBST’s long-standing successful partnership with Malaysian offset printer Tung Lim Press Sdn. Bhd.
Founded in 1982, the company was just three years old when its relationship with BOBST first began. Back then, Tung Lim Press was a three-man band, with a small 1,400 square ft plant. Its purchase of a BOBST SP 900 die-cutter in 1985 was the catalyst for almost four decades of remarkable growth.
Today, it is based in an 83,000 square ft factory on the banks of the Damansara River in Shah Alam, a cutting-edge facility that is home to 120 staff and 20 machines. It now has the capacity to produce 6 million units a week for the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and FMCG sectors, a performance that has seen its turnover grow to RM 25m (around $5.5m) a year.
This journey was not without its challenges. Jeffery Wong, Managing Director of Tung Lim Press, has seen the company overcome many problems. “The nature of offset printing means we have had to constantly upgrade our facilities to keep up with market trends. The solutions and expertise provided by BOBST have been invaluable in helping us to continually grow our market share for almost 40 years now,” he said.
“Our customers rightly demand the best from us, so when we need to expand our capacity, we also have to look for the best in terms of productivity, register precision, changeover, and cost-effectiveness. That search keeps leading us back to BOBST!”
Since acquiring its first die-cutter SP 900, the company has added further solutions including a BOBST SP EVOLINE 102-E and BOBST MEDIA 100 A2, both in 2002, and BOBST Novacut 106-E in 2020. In 2021, the time was right to grow its capacity even further. With the company forming plans to branch out into corrugated products, the new machine had to be precise, simple and easy to maintain, and very fast. Perhaps most importantly of all, it needed to come with expert customer service that guided and supported Jeffery and his team through the installation period and beyond, to help lay the foundation for Tung Lim Press’s new era.
As Jeffery describes it, the choice was easy. “Our continuous growth is down to the trust our customers have in us – they know our level of expertise and the quality of the technology we use. That means it’s important for us to trust our suppliers, too,” he said. “So, when we needed a new die-cutter that could boost our capacity today and into the future, we knew we could trust BOBST with the job.”
The result was yet another BOBST solution installed in the Tung Lim Press plant – a NOVACUT 106-E in 2021 Autoplaten and Ambition 76A2 in 2021
When it was up and running following what Jeffery described as a “user-friendly” setup, the effect of the new machine was instant, and its impact proved to be long-lasting. “NOVACUT has an average production speed of 7,000 sheets per hour and has increased our production output by 35%. We project it will lead to a 10% increase in revenue per year”, he added. “It gives us excellent performance with high production speed and output. With that speed comes increased safety and precision, which helps us keep costs down. And overall throughput is boosted by the rapid job changeover.”
These impressive numbers mean it is hard to bet against Jeffery and his team as they continue to expand into new market sectors while continually raising the bar of their core offset printing business. And one thing that is guaranteed is that BOBST will be there to support them as they grow, with new innovations, expert advice, and round-the-clock customer service.